New York - Saba:
The UN Security Council will hold meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss the famine in northern Gaza, at the request of Algeria, Guyana, Slovenia and Switzerland.
The request follows the recent report issued by the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IFSC) (a group of senior independent international experts in the field of food security, nutrition and mortality), which warned of an imminent and significant risk of famine in northern Gaza, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Strip.
The Famine Review Committee emphasised that ‘immediate action is needed within days, not weeks, from all actors to avert this catastrophic situation’.
Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis at the World Food Programme (WFP), said there is a strong likelihood of famine in parts of northern Gaza as a result of large-scale displacement, reduced commercial and humanitarian flows into Gaza, the destruction of infrastructure and health facilities and the difficult situation related to the work of UNRWA.
The World Food Programme (WFP) witnessed ‘a significant drop in the number of trucks entering Gaza in late October’, he said, noting that only 58 trucks were entering daily, compared to about 200 trucks during the summer, and most of the trucks that entered were carrying humanitarian aid.
The reduction in aid flows has led to a doubling of food prices in northern Gaza in recent weeks, he said, and they are now ‘about ten times higher than they were before the October outbreak’. This alarm is a reminder that ‘the eyes of the world should be on Gaza, and action is needed now,’ he said.
| more of (International) |